High School Girls Basketball: Rosemead cruises to tournament title with win over San Gabriel

AZUSA - Rosemead High School played outstanding defense and hit seven 3-pointers to wrap up the Azusa girls basketball tournament title with a 69-28 win over San Gabriel on Friday night.

The Panthers (4-0) forced 11 turnovers and took a 23-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.

"Defense was the key tonight," Panthers coach Jay Gauthier said. "We tell the girls if the other team can't score, even if we make mistakes, we'll still win. We try and wear teams down, and I think we eventually did that tonight."

Senior Melody Gauthier, the coach's daughter, hit her first two 3-point attempts and was 3 of 5 from beyond the arc on her way to 11 points in the first quarter.

Despite early foul trouble, Gauthier led all scorers with 26 points, making 5 of 11 attempts from beyond the arc. She scored 111 points in four games and was named the tournament MVP.

Gauthier picked up her third foul at the 1:27 mark of the first quarter but stayed in the game.

"Making my first shot always gets me pumped," she said. "I was just going hard toward the ball (when she picked up her third foul). After that I just tried to stay in front of my man and not draw contact.

"We've been working on our defense the past two weeks to try and get faster. We want the mindset to play fast and get to the ball."

The Matadors jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start the game but Gauthier hit her first 3-pointer and Sydney Hua hit a floater in the lane as she was fouled. Her free throw put the Panthers up 6-4.

"They came out strong," Jay Gauthier said. "That's the first time we've been behind all year."

The high-scoring Panthers have outscored their opponents 268-78 in their first four games.

Forward Ari Taghdis put back an offensive rebound to tie the score at 6-6, but that was it for the Matadors.

Hua made a free throw, Gauthier hit another 3-pointer then put in an easy layup off a steal by Sarah Reagan as Rosemead went on a 17-7 run to close out the quarter.

The Matadors were able to slow the game down in the second quarter but didn't score a basket until the 3:34 mark. They missed five free throws in the stretch as the Panthers outscored them 6-0.

"There was a time in the game when we went to a different-type defense," Matadors coach Lyle Honda said. "We wanted to shut those two girls (Gauthier and Hua) down but we couldn't score ... if you can't put the ball in the basket, you're not going to win."

Taghdis, the Matadors' top scorer and rebounder, picked up her fourth foul with 1:17 left in the first half. She fouled out at the 3:41 mark of the third quarter but led her team with nine points.

"They're longer and a little quicker," Honda said. "We must have shot about 10 percent from the free-throw line but their defense caused a lot of problems. They're more mature because most of them are seniors, and we had problems passing through their press, but that's just something we'll have to work on."

Hua, who was named to the all-tournament team, finished with 15 points and Reagan added 10 points as the Panthers had three players in double figures.

"Sarah is a real disciplined, quiet player," Jay Gauthier said. "Whenever they came out on our scorers, there she was. (Sydney and Melody) have the mindset of, `It's not what I score but that we score.' They understand that they can dump it off when the defense comes to stop them, and they do a good job of it."